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QMI Agency

Jun 20, 2014

, Last Updated: 12:40 PM ET

MONTREAL -- Transport Canada has established no-fly zones over two more Quebec jails as authorities continue to search for three fugitives who fled a holding centre via helicopter, QMI Agency has learned.

As of Thursday evening, it was illegal to fly over the detention centres in Saint-Jerome, Que., north of Montreal, as well as the Riviere-des-Prairies, Montreal's main holding jail in the city's east end.

A no-fly zone had already been effect at Orsainville jail near Quebec City, where alleged murderers and drug dealers Serge Pomerleau, Yves Denis and Denis Lefebvre escaped by chopper on June 7.

The Transport Canada directives will remain in force until at least mid-September.

Only federal prisons had previously been subject to no fly zones, but the Quebec government had requested that Ottawa take action following two chopper jailbreaks in the province in the last 15 months.

In the latest incident, witnesses say a Robinson R-44 helicopter flew right into the Orsainville jail yard and picked up the three inmates. The jail is currently undergoing security upgrades.

In March 2013, two other inmates escaped from a maximum-security jail north of Montreal with a hijacked helicopter. They were quickly recaptured.